China's smartphone market has experienced 11 consecutive quarters of decline, but Huawei shipments are still up year-on-year, according to a report.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, China's smartphone shipments fell by 15% to 85.3 million units, a seven-year low since the first quarter of 2013, the latest report released by research institute Canalys showed.
Canalys believes that the fourth quarter of each year should be the peak season for smartphone sales, and the abnormal phenomenon in the fourth quarter of 2019 is mainly due to the significant slowdown in sales due to the saturation of the 4G mobile phone market. At the same time, the demand for 5G mobile phones from major manufacturers is not as strong as expected.
However, in the fourth quarter of 2019, Huawei shipped 33 million units, an increase of 11% year-on-year and a 20% decrease from the previous quarter. Huawei still holds the top spot in China's smartphone market with a 39% market share.
Oppo and Vivo rank second and third, respectively, but shipments have fallen sharply by 25% and 29%, respectively, and the decline has exceeded the overall level of 15%.
The decline in Apple shipments narrowed to 12% to 10 million units, ranking fourth with a market share of 11.8%, surpassing Xiaomi.
Peng Luping, vice president of Canalys' mobile division, said that Huawei's growth momentum has been going on for a year and now it needs to be cautious. Due to the large inventory built in the second and third quarters of last year, this affected the performance in the fourth quarter, according to Yicai.com.
In addition, it is also difficult for Huawei to persuade mobile phone channel partners to increase the purchase of Huawei smartphone equipment in 2020, mainly because mid-to-high-end Huawei 4G mobile phone inventory is difficult to clean, she said.
Peng said that although Huawei's 5G mobile phones occupy up to 78% of the market share, manufacturers must help channel partners ease the pressure on 4G mobile phone inventory before 5G mobile phones flood the market.
Apple's performance rebounded in the fourth quarter of 2019, and its market share reached a new high in eight quarters. Peng Luping said that the competitive price of Apple's iPhone 11 won consumers in the Chinese market, which also greatly improved the performance of the fourth quarter. Apple's iPhone 11 became the best-selling model in the Chinese market.
She believes that Apple's 5G mobile phone may not be launched until the end of 2020, but there are still many Apple fans willing to wait for this. "Benefiting from Apple's ability to combine hardware and software, this will allow Apple 5G phones to have a higher replacement rate when it really arrives."
The smartphone shipment data for the full year of 2019 shows that Huawei smartphone shipments increased by 35% to 142 million units, with a market share of 38.5%.
Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi are ranked second, third and fourth respectively, with 17.5%, 17% and 10.5% market shares, with shipments of 67.5 million, 62.7 million and 38.8 million units.
Apple ranked fifth, with nearly 27.5 million units shipped in 2019, with a market share of 7.5%.
Peng believes that the recent outbreak of new coronavirus pneumonia may become the largest "black swan” event in the smartphone market, and mobile phone manufacturers must start preparing for potential business risks and business shocks.
